Lunars of the Caribbean

Times of Truth (10)

"You what?" he asked, his voice hoarse. A single tear was racing down the side of his cheek. If this had been two years ago, Scarlet would have been at his side to clear the tear away, pressing her lips to his cheek to make the pain secede.

Not seeing any reason to act like it hadn't occurred, Scarlet repeated herself. "I was screaming for you to come and help me. I called out for you .. Hell I begged for you to come and help me! And just when I needed you most .. You. Weren't. There."

Wolf .. yes, that was his name. His nickname at least. The one he chose for himself after he and his crew and ship abandoned the Lunar Armada. There was dozens of ships like the Lone Wolf hidden in some cave somewhere. But the only one that Scarlet had cared to think of was the Lone Wolf.

She'd spent months on that ship. As a navigational assistant to Wolf. They'd been searching for a cure for their mutant features. They'd heard of a similar curse to theirs. One of the Cursed Gold of Cortez. Gold that – when taken from it's stone chest – would make men dead, but unable to die as well. They thought they'd found what they needed to serve as an antidote, yet could not find a way to reach it. For they did not know where the antidote was located.

That's when Wolf heard of Scarlet. She was an amazing navigator that could find her way to anything she put her mind to. On pure instinct, she'd found a handful of hot spots with treasure up to your knees. So, he offered her a bounty for the location of the antidote, and for her to lead them to it.

Their journey had been fruitless, as the myth Wolf had found had simply been that, a myth. Still, he asked her to stay on board a while longer. She helped them discover so much and led them to find so many adventures.

Over those months of traveling over the seas, they'd grown close. Too close, for some of the crews' liking. They confided in one another, and eventually, they fell in love. Wolf once told her that he loved her the way he loved the sea. Because it was always changing, always enticing, never dull, and pushing him to adventure.

Scarlet saw through his beast-like exterior and found parts of him that others were too frightened to venture for. She fell in love with his weaknesses, making them her strengths. His kindness and tenderness drawing her cheeks to reflect the shade of her hair.

Now, Wolf was barely holding it together as the muscles in his jaw twitched. "You were screaming?" he wheezed.

Squeezing her arms more violently than before and screwing her nails further into her skin, she bit back harsher comments and told him, "Of course I was screaming. How could you not have heard it? Everyone else in Tortuga did."

Wolf lowered his head in shame. Weakly, he revealed, "Ran drugged me."

"What?" was the first response to slip out of Scarlet. As far as she knew, nothing could intoxicate a Lunar Soldier to the point of him passing out cold. Well, nothing except for the promise of true love and to be treated like a human being. Both of those Scarlet could attest to.

The only things holding Wolf up from the table were his locked arms that pressed the heels of his palms deeply into the edge. "He tricked my into drinking liquid that he drugged with a narcotic plant's nectar. He was toasting with me to another year away from Levana, and I'd already downed the glass before I realized it was drugged. I was asleep for days, and I woke up when the ship was a hundred miles away from you."

Scarlet couldn't tell if Wolf was making this story up to gain her trust and sympathy or if he was telling her the truth. It did seem like something that Ran would do. He would have betrayed his own brother for personal gain, and do anything to achieve his goals. Ran, Wolf's brother, was jealous of Scarlet's close connection to the Captain.